She said: "To be honest, it was just the flash when the photographer lit the pictures. I think it was really silly because I'm mixed race - my dad is Jamaican.

"I'm very proud of my roots and I would never try not to be who I am. When I read it, I just thought 'You must have been really bored when you wrote that article, and not had anything', because I'm not trying to be anything I'm not. I'm quite clearly mixed race."

Ferguson was speaking before her performance at a Christmas charity launch in Glasgow, where she sang for 600 Cash For Kids supporters at the Clyde 1 & Clyde 2 Cash For Kids Christmas Lunch.

It was set up in 1980 to support the most vulnerable children in the west of Scotland.